Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

After Mike Moran's landscapers mow and trim, they finish with the meticulous and uncommon touch of vacuuming a yard to leave it "perfect for a picture."

The arrival of daylight saving time Sunday steps up lawn-watering limits in nearly all of Central Florida from once to twice a week, marking the return of the growing season for lawns and prime time for pollution.

Grass cuttings, fallen oak leaves and other yard waste are packets of natural fertilizer that turn rivers and lakes into algae soup.

"There's no controversy over that," said Cris Costello, Sierra Club organizer in Florida. "Nobody disputes that it's a big problem but that it's easy to fix."

Fixing the problem means preventing clippings from migrating down gutters into local waters. That's easy relative to solving other pollution, including leaky septic tanks. But it's still a challenge, with contrasting opinions over solutions.

As owner of Royal Palm Landscape in Orlando, Moran seems more willing to experiment than the typical landscaper. For example, he is attempting to fuel a work truck with grass clippings and tree scraps.

Moran has used vacuums for years at modest homes, Winter Park mansions and luxury-auto dealers. He empties their bags at a landfill-compost site during regular trips to also dispose of tree and shrub trimmings.

He said the machines speed work, leave a home ready for a magazine feature, and "it's the right thing to do" environmentally.

If vacuuming seems like a win for the property owner and for the environment, not all in the landscape profession are impressed.

"It's flat-out nasty the dust, dirt," said Tom Burish, director of Florida Landscape Management Association, referring to emptying vacuum bags.

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Vacuum, bag or blow before yard pollutes water

Photo by: Sandra Mason

Garden walks offer an abundance of landscaping ideas.

Every time I look out the window, I dream of green and then gorge myself on tantalizing images of flowers and fruits in magazines and catalogs. Glorious gardens immersed in the picture-perfect light of dawn shine in garden magazines.

Of course, out of frame is the butterfly bush that was crushed by the basketball as the kids were playing one-on-one.

Cropped and coiffured images are pleasant dreams but hardly the reality of gardening. Maybe it's time for an adjusted aesthetic in our quest for garden perfection.

Our life coaches may come to us in the shape of a dog. One of my gardening acquaintances was blessed with a big Lab named Opie.

On hot summer days, Opie loved to dig in her garden and plop his big beefy body in the cool, moist soil.

She tried putting a big rock in Opie's digging spot. Undaunted, Opie just found another spot to dig. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep Opie from digging a summer loafing spot.

She finally decided to recognize Opie's landscaping aesthetic. She painted a beautifully adorned sign that heralded Opie's contribution. Rather than explain to every garden visitor why she had a big hole in her garden, the "Opie's Garden" sign was now a source of lighthearted banter about the joys of gardening. Instead of constantly fighting for perfection, she and Opie created a blissful alternative with her adjusted aesthetic.

First of all, learn to love your yard, even those quirky shady areas, wet spots and areas where the tree roots stick out. Certainly some changes can be made short of a bulldozer, but resolve now to quit fighting what is there. Work with what you have. Remember, in this ball game, Mother Nature bats last.

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Sandra Mason: Learn to love your landscape

Eric Pickles has agreed to visit Shropshire over controversial plans to build homes and holiday chalets next to a beauty spot in Church Stretton.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has said he will contact campaigners this week about arranging a site visit to Church Stretton and Caer Caradoc hill fort, next to which 85 houses and 16 holiday cabins are planned to the outrage of nearby residents.

The news was announced at a public meeting called by the Campaign to Protect Rural England at which more than 150 people gathered to talk about fighting the proposal by developer Morris Property. Church Stretton resident Martha Tryers, a 66-year-old retired paralegal researcher, said she had been in touch with Mr Pickles over intervening in plans to build Coventry Airport on greenbelt land, which she had successfully convinced him to do.

Now she had raised the matter of the houses at New House Farm, by Caer Caradoc, with him and only the night before the meeting he had told her: If only to get rid of you, Martha, I will come, she said.

The meeting heard Shropshire Council was convinced to remove the proposal last year, but a new planning application had been made which moved the site a little down the hill. The applications accompanying landscape strategy claims to assimilate the development into the surrounding area and the AONB it does nothing of the sort, said George Chancellor, chair of the Shropshire Hill Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) partnership.

He said the planners did not seem to understand that it was not simply about the look of the site, but about the wider impact such a large amount of houses could not fail to have on the surrounding countryside.

David Wilkes, of Strettons Civic Society, himself a former planning inspector, said the application would not go before Shropshire Councils south planning committee now until May at the earliest.

It was expected to be decided on March 10, but has been put on hold as the Highways Agency has requested more detail on access to the New House Farm site.

He said if approved the estate could set an unfortunate precedent opening the way to hundreds of houses on the greenbelt land around Caer Caradoc to the east of the A49.

John Woolmer, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, who called the public meeting, said campaigners would be protesting at Shirehall and called for people to get involved.

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Eric Pickles to visit Shropshire over hill fort homes bid

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